Hawaii is USA‘s 50th state and a popular holiday destination for its citizens, as well as foreign tourists. Together with Florida, it’s one of a few states where it’s usually summer year round. The most popular island is Oahu, where you’ll find Honolulu, Waikiki Beach and numerous other options to have a relaxing holiday. Maui is a good number two, and has great beaches and surfing as well as fantastic scenery. You can do daytrips to from here to islands like Molokai and Lanai. Kauai is another gem, in the northwest of the archipelago, while Hawaii Island (or the Big Island) is as big as all islands combined and is great for wachting the stars, hiking and more of a nature destination compared to the other islands.
A bit about Maui
Maui is the second-largest Hawaiian island, but offers more miles of great beaches than any of the other islands. From those who lived on Maui and from those who have ever been there, you will hear Maui no ka ‘oi. Maui is the best. But don’t believe their words, come and see for yourself!
The island has lots to offer, from sunrise from the peak of Haleakala, sunbathing on the beaches in Kaanapali and Kihei, driving the Road to Hana through blossoming rainforest, and watching whales and dolphins at their natural inhabitant. Besides wonderful and colorful nature, Maui is also a home to a rich culture and amazing ethnic diversity. In small towns like Paia and Hana you can see remnants of the past mingling with modern-day life. Aged coral and brick missionary homes now house broadcasting networks. The antique smokestacks of sugar mills tower above communities where the children merge English, Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Filipino, into one multihued language. There is probably no other place so diverse and exciting as Hawaii. The more you look here, the more you will find.
[two-column]Maui’s diverse landscapes are the result of a unique combination of geology, topography, and climate. Each volcanic cone in the chain of the Hawaiian Islands is built of dark, iron-rich/quartz-poor rocks, which poured out of thousands of vents as highly fluid lava, over a period of millions of years. Several of the volcanoes were close enough to each other that lava flows on their flanks overlapped one another, merging into a single island. Maui is such a “volcanic doublet,” formed from two shield volcanoes that overlapped one another to form an isthmus between them. The older, western volcano has been eroded considerably and is cut by numerous drainages, forming the peaks of the West Maui Mountains (in Hawaiian, Mauna Kahalawai).[/two-column]
[two-column last=”yes”]Puʻu Kukui is the highest of the peaks at 1,764 metres. The larger, younger volcano to the east, Haleakalā, rises to more than 3,000 metres above sea level, and measures 8,000 metres from seafloor to summit, making it one of the world’s highest mountains. The eastern flanks of both volcanoes are cut by deeply incised valleys and steep-sided ravines that run downslope to the rocky, windswept shoreline. The valley-like Isthmus of Maui that separates the two volcanic masses was formed by sandy erosional deposits. Maui is part of a much larger unit, Maui Nui, that includes the islands of Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Molokaʻi, and the now submerged Penguin Bank. During periods of reduced sea level, including as recently as 20,000 years ago, they are joined together as a single island due to the shallowness of the channels between them.[/two-column]
